Recognizing the Passion in Deliberation: Toward a More Democratic Theory of Deliberative Democracy

Hypatia ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 81-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Hall
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Democratic Theory

Participatory Democracy Revisited

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Pateman
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Active Area ◽  
Democracy Promotion ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Form

Over the past two decades we have heard an historically unprecedented volume of talk about and praise of democracy, and many governmental, non-governmental, and international organizations have been engaged in democracy promotion. Democracy is a subject that crosses the boundaries in political science, and within my own field of political theory there has been a major revival of democratic theory. In political theory, argument about “democracy” is usually now qualified by one of an array of adjectives, which include cosmopolitan, agonistic, republican, and monitory. But the new form that has been by far the most successful is deliberative democracy. By 2007 John Dryzek could write that “deliberative democracy now constitutes the most active area of political theory in its entirety (not just democratic theory).” Not only is there an extremely large and rapidly growing literature, both theoretical and empirical, on deliberative democracy, but its influence has spread far outside universities.

Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Muirhead
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Median Voter ◽  
Moral Motivation ◽  
Positive Theory ◽  
Median Voter Theorem ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
Models Of Democracy

Anthony Downs’s Economic Theory of Democracy has been marginalized in normative democratic theory, notwithstanding its prominence in positive political theory. For normative theorists, the “paradox of voting” testifies to the reality of moral motivation in politics, a species of motivation foreign to Downs’s theory and central to the ideals of deliberative democracy that normative theorists developed in the 1980s and 1990s. The deliberative ideal displaced aggregative conceptions of democracy such as Downs’s model. The ensuing segmentation of normative democratic theories that assume moral motives (like deliberative democracy) and positive models of democracy that assume selfish motives (like Downs’s theory) leaves both without the resources to diagnose the persistence of ideological partisanship and polarization that beset modern democracies. Engaging Downs’s theoretical contributions, especially the median voter theorem, would constitute a salutary step toward a democratic theory that integrates normative and positive theory.

Constitutional Interpretation and Institutional Perspectives: A Deliberative Proposal

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-255
Author(s):  
Donald Bello Hutt
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Institutional Commitment ◽  
Collective Effects ◽  
Constitutional Interpretation

Legal scholars generally consider the theorisation and constitutionalisation of constitutional interpretation as a matter for the courts. This article first challenges this tendency on conceptual grounds, showing that no institutional commitment follows from the nature of interpretation in law, constitutional law included. It then provides guidance for thinking about institutional perspectives according to two criteria: the nature and normative strength of the sources interpreted and the capacity of the interpreter to include and consider every possibility affected when her interpretation carries collective effects and is authoritatively final. The application of these criteria places the discussion on the grounds of democratic theory. The article thus reviews competing democratic theories and champions deliberative democracy as the alternative whose constitutive features best allow for the development of institutions capable of exercising constitutional interpretation when the imposition of meaning on the constitution is final and carrieserga omneseffects.

Recognizing the Passion in Deliberation: Toward a More Democratic Theory of Deliberative Democracy

Hypatia ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 81-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Hall
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Emotional Expression ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Race And Class

Critics have suggested that deliberative democracy reproduces inequalities of gender, race, and class by privileging calm rational discussion over passionate speech and action. Their solution is to supplement deliberation with such forms of emotional expression. Hall argues that deliberation already inherently involves passion, a point that is especially important to recognize in order to deconstruct the dichotomy between reason and passion that plays a central role in reinforcing inequalities of gender, race, and class in the first place.

Deliberative Democracy

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
Selen A. Ercan
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
The Relationship

Deliberative democracy is a growing branch of democratic theory. It suggests understanding and assessing democracy in terms of the quality of communication among citizens, politicians, as well as between citizens and politicians. In this interview, drawing on his extensive research on deliberative practice within and beyond parliaments, André Bächtiger reflects on the development of the field over the last two decades, the relationship between normative theory and empirical research, and the prospects for practicing deliberation in populist times.

Superdeliberators

In Our Name ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Beerbohm
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Close Relative ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Moral Requirement ◽  
Public Speech ◽  
And Diffusion

This chapter argues that deliberative democracy is morally desirable but not strictly a moral requirement by focusing on superdeliberators and superdeliberation. The superdeliberator is a close relative of the philosopher-citizen. Each corresponds to the two meanings of “deliberation” in democratic theory, as reasoned thought and reasoned talk. The chapter first describes four necessary conditions that make a democratic theory deliberative before presenting two claims for the supererogation of deliberation at the micro- and macrodemocratic level. It then considers the belief by deliberativists that citizens have a standing obligation to participate periodically in contestatory forums. It also rejects the notion that the quantity and diffusion of public speech acts envisaged by deliberative theory is a necessary property of a morally acceptable social order. Finally, it examines the bare moral obligations that attach to citizens' reasoning about politics.

The Philosophic Origins of Deliberative Ideals

2018 ◽  
pp. 54-69
Author(s):  
Simone Chambers
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
John Dewey ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
American Pragmatism ◽  
The Core ◽  
Intellectual Heritage ◽  
The Way

Deliberative democracy is a relatively recent development in democratic theory. But the theorists and practitioners of deliberative democracy often reach far back for philosophical and theoretic resources to develop the core ideas. This chapter traces some of those sources and ideas. As deliberative democracy is itself a somewhat contested theory, the chapter does not present a linear story of intellectual heritage. Instead it draws on a variety of sometimes disparate sources to identify different ideals that become stressed in different versions of deliberation and deliberative democracy. The philosophic sources canvased include Aristotle, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, John Dewey and American Pragmatism, John Rawls, and Jürgen Habermas. The chapter pays special attention to the way different philosophical sources speak to the balance between the epistemic and normative claims of deliberative democracy.

Open Citizens' Juries and the Politics of Sustainability

2003 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Ward ◽  
Aletta Norval ◽  
Todd Landman ◽  
Jules Pretty
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Democratic Participation

Scholars have sought to establish a link between sustainability and deliberative democracy. Some suggest that citizens' juries can realise this link, especially since they encourage a deeper form of democratic participation. However, we argue that there remain important problems. We therefore propose an open citizens' jury model as an alternative, based on key principles drawn from democratic theory.

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